editorial 
Focus on religious freedom in Africa

afrol.com, 18 September 2000 - African societies to a high degree are religious societies. Africa is heterogeneous when it comes to religion. On a general view, Africans are free to practice their religion. However, a new, comprehensive US government report exposes the state of religious freedom in each and every country of the world. afrol this week will focus on the situation of religious freedom in Africa.

Is religious freedom applicable to Africa, though? The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is very clear on this. The right to religious freedom is UNIVERSAL, not depending on neither states nor cultures. In the Declaration it says that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience." 

A historical perspective
As religion belongs to the world of culture, and culture is very relative, especially in its way of assessing society, one could be tempted to question the universality of the right to religious freedom. Regarding African history, one might even find weighty reasons to defend homogenous religious states. Most historical African empires built their unity on religion. Most ancient kingdoms, from the Merina empire on Madagascar, through the Congo kingdoms, Kanem in modern Chad/Nigeria and pharaonic Egypt, built their fundament on divine kingships, were a questioning of the "state religion" was equal to questioning the power of the king. Later, Islam and Christianity have played similar roles in the making of heterogeneous, forceful African empires. Worth mentioning are especially the Mahdi empire in Sudan, the Fulbe empires of Nigeria and Cameroon, the Maghreb empires, Christian Ethiopia and even the reformed, Christian Merina empire of Madagascar.

History, however, is ambiguous on this matter. There is as much documentation of tolerance as of homogeneity. Christians and Jews had religious freedom, without interference in their worship, in almost any historic Muslim empire in Africa. It was guaranteed them. Muslim traders and scholars plaid important roles in African non-Muslim empires, even when ruled by divine kings. As such, the Muslim Fulbe and Hausa were tolerated and looked up to in the entire Sudan. Muslim traders and scholars were present and accepted in all eastern Africa, from Ethiopia to ancient Zimbabwe and Madagascar. The divine Malagasy kingships had extensive trade contacts with Swahili Muslims, and the Muslim minority on Madagascar was not interfered in its worship.

To some degree, religious intolerance was a product of European mission and colonialism. Devine kingships were threatened by the aggressive missionaries, demanding too much of their converts. In order to be accepted as a Christian, they had to break the ties with the traditional society, stopping to pay tribute to the divine king. Muslim converts, on the other hand, had a more relaxed relationship with traditional leaders and society - maybe because an African Islam was allowed to develop. However, religious conflicts, wars and intolerance had much history in Africa prior to European interference. One of the most ugly aspects of African history is the disrespect many Muslim rulers paid to the followers of traditional African religions by permitting their enslavery. In many Muslim empires of the Sudan, maybe specially the Fulbe Sokoto Caliphate, non-Muslims were equal to slaves and were hunted, put to internal slavery, exported to Arab states as slaves or sold to Europeans for slavery in the Americas. It must be notes, though, that Muslims were not the only collaborators to the European trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Although there have been some African conflicts and wars due to the competition between Christians and Muslims, notably between Ethiopia and its neighbours, and still going on in South Sudan, the history of religious intolerance in Africa is marked by the disrespect for traditional African religions by Muslims and Christians.

Neither the Muslim nor the Christian society have accepted traditional African religions as an equal. They continue to disrespect these religions on a wide scale. There always has been, and there still is, a secret agreement on the practice of mission in Africa. Christians missionaries do not try to convert Muslims, and Muslims do not try to convert Christians - as they already belong to a faith. Followers of traditional African religions, on the other hand, constitute the contested missionary fields as they still do not "belong to a faith". They are "heathens" - a term still widely used by Christian missionaries, or "slaves" - a term still used by many Muslims (often meaning the same as heathen). With the emergence of the UNIVERSAL right to religious freedom, little has changed in respect of traditional African religions. In the ecumenical cooperation between the different "world religions", traditional African religions are not respected.

Religious freedom in modern Africa
Putting history aside, the African reality has changed extremely with the emergence of national states. The basis of power, maybe with the exception of Sudan, is not based on religion, but on the principles of modern states. Almost every African country is heterogeneous when it comes to religious and ethnical groups, with some exceptions in North Africa. Borders were not drawn in respect of ancient African empires or religions. Further, the influence of Islam and Christianity has spread into areas were it didn't exist only decades ago. The religious map of Africa is a mosaic and has nothing to do with the political map of Africa. Thus, religious freedom should be of the highest priority in Africa.

In one country, Muslims are predominant, with minorities of Christians and traditional religions. In the neighbouring country, Christians pose the majority. Except for some North African countries, nation building simply cannot be produced around one, uniform religion. Now, governmental discrimination of one particular religion seldom is practiced in Africa - this is a problem much more prevalent outside our continent. However, the US report notes serious violations against the religious freedom also in Africa.

These violations in Africa are in general a result of poor respect for human rights in some countries, of local intolerance and of the disrespect paid to African traditional religions in general. The typical examples of governmental abuses are of a nature of disrespect of oppositional views. Religious leaders to some degree also are political leaders, as a religion is entitled to have an opinion about society. This right is not always admitted. An extreme example is Equatorial Guinea, were all religious activity is oppressed.

Local intolerance is maybe the most dangerous threat against religious minorities in Africa. The examples of assaults is increasing, the last examples being attacks on minorities in Côte d'Ivoire by locals. In many countries, the government does not take its obligations to protects religious minorities seriously enough. Also on a local basis, discrimination is widespread. The victims of religious discrimination often are followers of traditional African religions. Examples can be drawn from Northern Cameroon, Ghana and Mauritania, were slavery based on religion in practical terms still is widespread, or from Nigeria, were the implementation of Shari' a laws in a heterogeneous society intimidates Christians and other minorities. 

The US report mentions some countries in particular when it comes to government abuses of the right to religious freedom. Sudan is the African country with the most serious abuses. But also the situation in Nigeria and Egypt gives reason for concern.

In October 1999, the Secretary of State designated Sudan as a country of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act for particularly severe violations of religious freedom. The US expressed concern about the significant religious dimension of government forces targeting the mostly indigenous and Christian southern population. 

In July 2000, the US government expressed publicly its "deep concerns" about religious violence in Nigeria. The status of respect for religious freedom deteriorated during the year due to the implementation of an expanded version of Shari' a law in several northern states, which challenged constitutional protections for religious freedom and sparked interreligious violence.

Egypt has been noted for the assaults by fundamentalist Muslims on the Christian minority. The report, however, states that there have been improvements in the situation for Christian Copts in Egypt and that the government has worked actively against discrimination and sought to protect Christians from assault.

There are also good news, however. Several African states were noted for "Noteworthy improvements in respect for religious freedom". 

- Egyptian Copts were appointed to senior political party positions during the reporting period, and some observers noted an increased representation of Christians in public and political life. 
- In The Gambia, "in contrast to previous years, there were no reports of persecution against members of the Ahmadis or against any other religious group". 
- In Ghana, the Government was more active in addressing religious conflicts than in past years and had outlawed religious slavery. 
- In Sudan, some religious prisoners and detainees were released, the Public Order Courts were abolished, the enforcement of public order law was relaxed, and women imprisoned under that law were released.

The US report on religious freedom
This month, the U.S. Department of State released its second annual Report on Religious Freedom. Although based on an American value system, it is a tremendous piece of work, reporting about the state of religious freedom in each and every country.

US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright herself presented the report to the press. In her statement, she emphasized on "the central role that our concern for religious freedom plays in the foreign policy of the United States". Indeed, the last two decades has seen a strong American commitment to religious freedom in its foreign policy, to the degree of becoming negligent to other fundamental human rights, critics have claimed.

It should not surprise any that the US emphasizes especially on the human right of free religious practice - obtaining religious freedom was the very reason for the first emigration to North America. It might very well be called the most fundamental human right in American history and society.

In conclusion, the only questionable in US policies regarding human rights is why they put so much more weight to the right of free religious practice than to, say, social and economic rights, largely ignored in US foreign policy. No matter this inconsistence, when it comes to investigating the state of religious freedom in the world's countries and criticizing violations of this UNIVERSAL right, no one is entitled to criticize the US. We cannot compromise on the universality of the universal human rights.

This week, afrol.com will publish a series of articles about the state of religious freedom in various African countries, and we invite You to debate the issue. Send us a mail (mail@afrol.com), headed "Religious freedom", and we will publish it on afrol.

 Yours sincerely,
Rainer Chr. Hennig
the editor

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